Banbury man and woman arrested over alleged terror offences

A 21-year-old man and a 37-year-old woman from the town were arrested by a partnership of counter terrorism units and searches as a number of properties.

Four other men – a 26-year-old from Cambridge, a 28-year-old from Wolverhampton, a 26-year-old from Leicester and a 24-year-old from Stockport – were also arrested.

All were detained on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism, namely on suspicion of being a member of a proscribed organisation, National Action.

The five men are being held in the West Midlands and the woman at a police station outside the force area.

The arrests were pre-planned and intelligence-led; there was no threat to the public’s safety, West Midlands Police said.

National Action was banned in December, 2016, the first extreme right-wing group to be outlawed in the UK.